Here’s a solution to the confirmation of Gorsuch….. Congress has the discretion to decide how many justices can be on the Supreme Court. When and if the Dems ever control Congress and the WH again, they add two more to make it 11 and then the Dem. President can appoint whoever the hell they want. Does this open the door to more meddling with SCOTUS in future? Yes but I have no f*cks left to give now that the GOP has exercised the nuclear option.

muselet

“Now we find out that Lee Stranahan is no longer working for Breitbart. Lee Stranahan is working for Sputnik.” That may be a step up, a step down or a lateral move for Stranahan, but it’s fascinating to think that a generation ago, staunch conservatives would have called someone working for a Russian government media company a traitor. As I’ve said so many times before, I don’t like to pathologize stupidity, but the Right seems to have Daddy issues that make Vladimir Putin and his mighty moobs irresistible.

Most people, for the sake of a quiet life, avoid following politics. I can’t blame them—there are times I feel like hiding under the bed myself—but there are negative consequences to doing so—and especially to not voting—such as a President Donald John Trump or an Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. I’m not going to suggest voting be compulsory, as in Australia, but surely we can do better than we do.

I’m not angry at Trump voters, per se. I’m angry at the Trump voters who are now shocked, shocked!, that Donald Trump is doing more or less what he said he would do. No, children, he wasn’t joking, he wasn’t being hyperbolic, he was dead serious (in his own bizarre fashion).

Steve Bannon being removed from the NSC Principals Committee is good news, since he should never have been there in the first place; the addition of Rick “Goodhair” Perry and Nikki Haley is not, since they’re blockheads (of course, given a choice between stupid and evil, I’ll take stupid every day of the week).

The rumor mill says Bannon and Jared Kushner (he of the ever-expanding portfolio of responsibilities, and a living monument to the Peter Principle) earnestly loathe each other, and Kushner has Trump’s ear both directly and indirectly, through Ivanka Trump. The rumor mill also says Trump himself is irritated by Bannon’s high profile. Ashby posted about this on the blog, and while we all had a good giggle at those (un-)worthies’ expense, this is serious banana republic-level palace intrigue.

Michael “Kangaroos in the Top Paddock” Flynn is likely not to appreciate his role as fall guy. Exactly what he can do apart from torching the entire Trump administration, I’m not sure. I expect he’ll stay loyal to Trump even if it’s not mutual, but I could be wrong.

Fourteen people with connections to Vova, Manly Authoritarian Man Of Action, and Donald Trump? No, that doesn’t sound like a coincidence to me, either.

Mitch McConnell bet it all on 0 with Merrick Garland, and won. That was a thumb in the eye of the Ds, Barack Obama especially, but it was also a gutsy move. He now seems to be convinced that he’s untouchable, that he can keep pulling off audacious moves and lying about what has happened before. Me, I figure he’s riding for a fall: he and the Rs have for years actively sabotaged cusoms and conventions that kept the Senate running fairly smoothly and with limited animosity, and when—not if—the Rs are again in the minority, the Ds will not be in a forgiving mood.

So much for the Senate as a deliberative body.

“How much of this can we change back?” Temporarily, probably a lot, but the current crop of Rs are Visigoths. They will obstruct when they’re in the minority—all the while shrieking about how unfair the Ds are being—and will restore at least the more destructive changes to the way the Senate does business the nanosecond they are in the majority. Like the scorpion in the fable, it’s their nature. Which is a long-winded way of saying I wish I were as optimistic as you, Buzz.

The Rs are playing a high-risk, high-reward game by putting up with Trump, and they know it. But if they get a long-term Righty majority on the Supreme Court, they win. Sure, the country goes for a Burton and takes the rest of the world with it, but they get to live out their Ayn Rand-approved wet dreams!

Donald Trump wouldn’t be able to pick Neil Gorsuch out of the proverbial, and Vladimir Putin couldn’t care less about him. Trump simply stuck a pin in a list of potential candidates provided by the Federalist Society and voilà!, we have a nominee for the Supreme Court. The only thing that matters to Trump is that he doesn’t have to even go through the motions of looking like he cares about Gorsuch’s qualifications.

Of course Trump is uniquely, colossally unqualified to be President of the United States. During the campaigns, both primary and general, that was his USP, that he knew nothing and cared less about how government actually works. And, sadly, the people who voted for him looked at his past—the personal crudity, the tasteless buildings, the bankruptcies, the serial infidelity, the inability to make money running a casino (how the everloving fck does that even happen?), the increasingly-absurd product endorsements—and saw a dashing rogue and an American success story.

Yes, we’ve had other oddballs as president. If that lets you sleep at night, Bob, okay. It doesn’t work for me, though.

Buzz, the difference between you two and Right Wing Conspiracy Theorists is that you have facts on your side and would change your opinions if new facts came to light.

Matt Taibbi is a fine reporter and an insightful commentator, and knows Russia better than most of the rest of us know our hometowns, but he seems to have a blind spot about Russian meddling in the US election. Being concerned about it does not make us insane.

I don’t like to pathologize stupidity, but the Right seems to have Daddy issues that make Vladimir Putin and his mighty moobs irresistible

IMHO this wins the Intertoobs

Scopedog

Most people, for the sake of a quiet life, avoid following politics. I can’t blame them—there are times I feel like hiding under the bed myself—but there are negative consequences to doing so—and especially to not voting—such as a President Donald John Trump or an Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch.

This. What happens in Washington (or in the state houses) sure as s**t does not stay in Washington or the state houses. It affects everyone. And frankly, I really don’t have the time or the patience for the “I don’t vote” crowd; as a Black guy, my right to vote was only truly guaranteed when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in the 1960s, and now the GOP want to destroy it.

And yet instead of hearing shock from some on the alt-Left, all I hear are calls to “sit it out” or to throw my vote away for some third party egg because it’s about “voting my conscience” or some other bully-bull. No thanks.

muselet

Couldn’t agree with you more.

–alopecia

Badgerite

No. Russia, I’m sure, could not care less about Gorsuch. What Putin does care about is NATO and the European Union and doing anything he and the FSB can do to undermine those western alliances as they pose an alternative to the kind of closed economy ( kleptocracy ) and closed society that he has reinstated in Russia and would like to reinstate in eastern Europe at the very least. The first thing that raised alarm bells with the trump people and trump himself was his statements about and treatment of our long time traditional allies in the world and particularly in Europe.
Putin is now making a push to build on Brexit and further the political interests of any and all authoritarian bordering on fascist movements in European elections, funneling money and support into Marie Le Pen’s campaign and the campaigns of opponents of Angela Merkel. At this critical time, and under the auspices of President Bannon, the US State Department has been all but neutered and made non existent in the world. And Tillerson, well, you are apparently not allowed to look him in the eye let alone expect him to speak for the US in the world. These are things that are out there in the world and beyond dispute. And then there are all those allegedly ‘nonexistent’ contacts between the trump campaign and Russia. That are then proven to be very existent and that they seem to feel the need to be lying about a lot. And the refusal of trump as a candidate and in office to release what every other person before him has released, his tax returns that would give the public some insight into just how involved his finances are with Russian interests and whether those interests are legitimate or illegitimate. If Taibbi agrees with Greg Palast,always has always seemed to, that we have the “best democracy money can buy”, what, in the world, would lead him to believe that that democracy could not be undermined and ” bought” by foreign money? When you have a ‘news’ organization that is devoted to political propaganda and conditions the public to accept that as ‘news’, why does he practically assume that that does not make this country vulnerable to foreign propagandists.

I agree–the strike in Syria was due to McMaster. We need to remember that Drumpf follows whoever the last person he talked to was and in this case, with Bannon being off the NSC and Tillerson on the road (not that he cares about anything that doesn’t affect oil prices), it had to have been McMaster.

Badgerite

Ah. I forgot the “whoever he talked to last” principle of leadership.
My guess is McMaster also.

ProudLiberalAlways

I love Buzz’s comparison of Rump as a fox with rabies—–it’s wonderful!!! Can’t you just picture Rump,shaking and foaming at the mouth? He’s already got the very glassy eyes, crazy eyes!

I hate to bust your bubble Herr Gropenfuhrer does not fit in even with our most eccentric presidents. I’m pretty certain every single previous president either had military experience, experience in public office and/or were constitutional attorneys. He is literally the most unqualified person we have elected as President.

ProudLiberalAlways

And Go willing, ever will elect as President!! Please, please, let’s not EVER do anything like this again!

Scopedog

I said the same thing after G.W. Bush…but it seems that too many people in the US and in the media have short f**king memories. Eight years after that piece of human waste someone even worse gets in.

At least GW knew how to fly a damn plane and tried to do the National Guard. Not to mention a father and a brother with experience in politics. Herr Hair doesn’t even have that!

Scopedog

True.

ProudLiberalAlways

My favorite definition of Libertarians is “Republicans who want to smoke dope and get laid” as per Thom Hartman. It does seem to me to be fitting—-Buzz is right—-scratch any Libertarian and you’ve got a republican!

proghunter

So-called Progressives are socialists and commies who don’t have the balls to admit who they are. Cause they’d get their asses kicked.

Going along with the fact that most Americans don’t know who Gorsuch is, Buzz..how do we know the people that didn’t vote wouldn’t have voted for Rump? I think I’m more angry at Bernie Sanders first, then Jill Stein and their followers. I mean, look at Bernie right now..he’s STILL attacking Hillary and takes no responsibility for his role in prolonging his doomed campaign and not trying to heal the rift of his vocal followers to vote for the Democratic nominee, which was their responsibility.

I refer to him as “Rump” because of his unending disrespect of President Obama. He doesn’t deserve any more respect than “Rump.”

Rump can’t get away with any successes if there are any attacks here, because Dems could easily say that it could have been prevented if Rump had listened to our own intelligence services and provided them with the organizational support they needed, and wasn’t so f’ing crazy.
The Repubs don’t care if it will take decades to repair the damage, they are at the trough and lining their pockets as fast as they can.
Rump may be nominating, but the Repubs are the ones confirming. And no, you’re not the only ones going crazy about the utter denigration of the office and institution of the office of the presidency. It’s sickening, disgusting, and it will take a long time to restore not only the dignity of the institution, but the dignity of the entire United States.

None of those guys (past odd presidents you mentioned) were bought and paid for by Russia, but none of those guys had control of nuclear weapons, either..

Scopedog

I think I’m more angry at Bernie Sanders first, then Jill Stein and their followers. I mean, look at Bernie right now..he’s STILL attacking Hillary and takes no responsibility for his role in prolonging his
doomed campaign and not trying to heal the rift of his vocal followers to vote for the Democratic nominee, which was their responsibility.

This. Frankly, while I am angry at those who didn’t vote (like Buzz), I’m furious at those who ran to Stein or stuck to Sanders to the bitter end. The majority of Sanders’ supporters did go to Hillary, but there were those “Bernie of Bust!”ers who refused. Also, seeing the dead silence of Stein and her supporters at the clusterfuck that the Trump regime is turning into, and remembering how they screamed 24-7 about how Hillary was going to be so much worse…no, fuck ’em. I’m pretty much at this stage with them:

Exactly, where are they now? All those on the left who are A-Okay with the Russians screwing with our elections need to STFU_STFD.

KABoink_after_wingnut_hacker

You are exactly correct!
All those who “just weren’t excited about Hillary” were warned of the risks and they still stick to their guns to this day with their ignorant and selfish purist bullshit.
I relentlessly tell them of what they have done and the damage they have caused.
FFS, the SCOTUS is in the hands of rightwing zealots for generations, the Senate has been nuked, Congress is completely gerrymandered and Putin runs the Executive branch.
And it’s only going to get fucking worse because Citizen’s United will never be overturned now.
Fuck’em, the far leftwing is as bad as the rightwing Nazis.

Scopedog

All those who “just weren’t excited about Hillary” were warned of the
risks and they still stick to their guns to this day with their ignorant
and selfish purist bullshit.

Yep.

I relentlessly tell them of what they have done and the damage they have caused.
FFS, the SCOTUS is in the hands of rightwing zealots for generations, the
Senate has been nuked, Congress is completely gerrymandered and Putin
runs the Executive branch.

I remember doing this back in 2001 after Bush II won (or rather, was installed), minus the Putin thing, of course. They just shrugged, said, “So what?” and waved a copy of Alexander Cockburn’s Al Gore: A User’s Guide at my face. They didn’t fucking care then, and they don’t fucking care now.